KUCHING: Sarawak Yang di-Pertua Negeri Tun Abdul Taib Mahmud remains well and in good stead, says the Astana.
In a statement on Thursday (June 22), it said there was no truth to rumours surrounding Taib's health.
"We would like to assure that all viralled and unverified news which are not from Astana Negeri Sarawak regarding the wellbeing of Tun in social media platforms are completely fake and untrue," Taib's private secretary Junih Salleh Ahmad said in the statement.
He also called for all adverse reports and rumours about Taib to be put to rest.
The statement came following viral social media messages claiming that Taib was ill or had passed away.
Taib, 87, is currently serving his third term as Yang di-Pertua Negeri after being reappointed for two more years by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong on Feb 28 last year.
He was previously Sarawak's longest-serving chief minister from 1981 to 2014.
He became the seventh Head of State on March 1, 2014, succeeding Tun Abang Muhammad Salahuddin Abang Barieng.
His term was extended for another four years in 2018.
